A Spyderco Pikal?

Interresting discusion. I am infavor of a short, sub 3,5, blade as I think it is easyier to carrie, hide and explain. Though a lot of this probably depents on where you live. It would be good for it to have a unthreatening look and name. As Pika is form the Philipines, why not name it after a Philipino island, city or river? E.g. the Manila or the Mindanao. Just an idea.

For the lock I think Spyderco's intergral compresion lock in ss is best. I have had a look at this lock on the ss ATR and found it very impressive. It combines strenght, security, ease of use and afortability in one package.

JD
 
Hi KenN. Spyderco always tries to give you the Sun AND the moon ;)

Witness Hi Line steels on most models, custom made G-10 (more layers of glass), nested liners, innovation and variety.

Edda-Koppo. The ball bearing lock does take a litle getting used to, but it also has some advantages; self closing bias, almost impossible to accidentally unlock, easier inertia. But we're open. Just need to feed the ideas into my head.

The Spyderfly is the result of a forum discussion.

The UK Penknife is the result of forum discussion.

The gray Calypso jr returned due to forum discussion.

Hey Joe, always appreciate your involvement. Shouldn't take 2 years though. It's a new pattern, but not a new lock.

I'm trying to nail down the important features. If we're making the knife for you, we need to know exactly what is important.

The Spyderfly was a little different in that we'd not built one before, but our experience (Eric & mine) with balisongs was long.

I first hear about Pikal while working the Spirit of Steel Show about 5 years ago. I had already been to James Keating's "Riddle of Steel" and this form was foreign to me. Subsequent questioning revealed a simple depth to the concept which has been intriguing to me. This is the first opportunity I've had to look deper into the concept. You had mentioned to me last year that you were getting more involved in Pikal, which further spiced interest. I don't think it would take two years to develop and produce a model. Maybe 9-12 months?

Hi SouthNaRC. The DVD didn't get here Friday. Looking forward to receipt on Monday.

sal
 
Sorry about that Sal. It was coming from California so it may even pop up there today. Are you going to be at Blade West by chance? We'll have a ShivWorks table there and it'd be great to sit down with you and Trace and yak a bit.
 
Hi SouthNarc. We don't have a booth there, but it might be a good reason to visit the show. When is the show this year?

sal
 
Sal,

Southnarc's notions of what real defensive situations are like, and illustration of why pakal-based defense applies so well to them, were a revelation to me. I always felt that flow drills and even sparring just were missing important reality-based pieces, but didn't quite know how to express it. SN captures it perfectly. Think you'll enjoy the video.

9-12 months would be fantastic. I think that most of the differences in views being expressed are ultimately minor ... to me, the most serious is blade size (obviously, my feeling is: mo' bigga, mo' betta), but the smaller-blade advocates have good arguments of their own, and I'd pick up this knife regardless.
 
Looks like Sept 17-19 in Ontario Sal. I'm probably going to be there for a week or so shooting some more video and might end up doing a one day seminar also.
 
A spyderco Pakal knife would be great. I'd prefer a smaller blade, similar to the gunting in length. That way it would remain legal in the majority of US jurisdictions. In my novice opinion, I'd prefer wharncliffe, slight hook (a la the Kershaw Talon), or slight regular curve (like the delica and gunting).

I'm a big fan of the compression lock, MBC rating and a right-left reversible clip in tip up position. I use my knives often for ordinary cutting chores, and find myself cutting with the blade facing me (edge-up or edge-down) rather than the typical orientation of edge-down. Most of the time when I'm cutting edge-down, I'm performing food-prep.

As always, I'm impressed by Sal's willingness to elicit ideas from end-users and then actually listen to them.
 
If you want a good name for it, try "Reverse Rescue".

Make its stated purpose to be for cutting people out of situations were they are trapped, and the knife is designed to be used cutting upwards away from the person for safety, with a sharp point and narrow edge for increased control and percission, with a strong lock for user protection.

Its a compliment to the Spyderco Rescue knife already on the market with a sheep's foot blade, which can be use in other circumstances were the Reverse Rescue isn't what is needed, like for tougher fiberous materials and situations were an unintentional puncture from a fine point would not be just be inapporpriate risky, but catastrophic (Edited to add following) such as in rafting circumstances were a fine point in rough water, uncontroled, can injure someone and can sent a rubber craft to the bottom.
 
Hi all, my dad had an idea last night at dinner when I was telling him about this.I don't know how well this would go over with you guys but what if this was made as a gravity knife? Well, almost a gravity knife. You have to push the blade out of the handle and then it locks into place. You have a spring giving a slight resitance so that it is not a gravity knife. But you could have a good lock on it to make it MBC worthy and still have good access? This would allow for a resonably fast access. And Sal could make automatic models for police SAR units aswell. That would give it further promise as a rescue knife. What do you guys think?



Also I think it would be cool to see how Spyderco handles the idea of a new type of knife design they have never done. ;)
 
Great topic. One more feature suggestion . . . reversible deep pocket clip for discreet carry.

Best regards,

Argyll
 
I think I got confused--when I initially said frame lock, I meant Compression frame lock, as on the ATR--isn't that MBC rated? Then the rest of the design features--in essence, the lock style of the ATR with everything else about the ATR changed.
 
Hey Sal,

I’ll throw another vote in for Spyderco doing a pikal knife. I’ve been carrying modified Kershaw Talon as a pikal folder every day for the last year and half or so. As much as I love the Talon, there is room for improvement as far as a pikal folder goes. You and SouthNarc could definitely put a nice pikal knife. Optimistically I’ll say “Put me down for at least two.”

Gavin D.
 
I'm in for one and a trainer.
My preferences are for the sub 3.5" and either ball-bearing or compression lock works for me. I have no complaints about the ball lock on my Dodo. :)
 
donutsrule said:
I have no complaints about the ball lock on my Dodo. :)
Click to expand...

Me neither. It works perfectly for both my wife and I (bought it as a gift to her). Disengaging the lock and closing the blade one-handed is easy with either hand.
 
I love the ball lock as a concept. Driven with a good reliable coil spring.

That said, I've seen more ball lock complaints than I have about any other spyderco lock (or any other feature). I'm hoping that that was just working the bugs out of the early implementations; if so, the ball seems like a great choice.

Joe
 
The ball bearing lock is only a couple of years old. We're refining all of the time. The Dodo lock works well with a fingernail (not all have fingernails). The ball is smaller and the knife is thinner to compensate.

Early problems with the Dodo centered around the angle of the approach. Once this was sorted, we've not encountered any additional problems.

The D'Allara seems to be harder for more people, even though the ball is larger. I believe this is because the knife is much thicker.

The D'Allara has had the ball bearing access opening enlarged and the texturing removed under the clip (too aggressive). The D'Allara is again going through another refinement. The ball bearing access is being opened still larger, the handle is being made thinner and there is another blade shape in consideration. This will make it easier to unlock and make for a thinner package in the pocket.

On the Ball bearing lock, we use 2 coil springs. One inside of the other. One keeps the knife closed and works as a back-up in case the primary spring has a problem.

A real advantage of the ball bearing lock is that it is almost impossible to accidentally unlock.

Edda Koppo. thanx for the explanation.

Would a SS integral compression lock be preferred? the handle would not have the texture of G-10 unless it was drilled out like the SS ATR.

I need more input on the "line-up" of the handle and blade. Should the tip of the blade be lined up with the centerline of the handle or the bottom of the handle? Is a hawkbill/warncliffe blade the best shape?

sal
 
I agree. I love the ball lock as well. It is such a simple and elegant solution. I have a feeling that the problems early on just stemmed from working out the machining tolerances and getting the slot in the tang sized just right. Other than the ball not sliding forward quite enough (not locking) or the ball going forward a little too hard and getting wedged (hard to disengage), there's not much else that can go wrong with it. As long as you have the slot in the tang cut and aligned just right when the knife leaves the factory, I think it would be pretty difficult to mess up the mechanism without disassembling the knife completely. (And even if you DID take the knife apart, as shown in the "Inside the Dodo" thread http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297532 , it's pretty trivial to put back together properly.)
 
I would like the tip of the blade slightly below the plane of the blade.

A very sight hook but not rising to the level anywere near the harpy, but hooked for grabbing and tearing.
 
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